A new “card” at the negotiating table: Ukrainian Armed Forces hit Russia's largest ammunition arsenal

On April 22, the “long arm” of Ukrainian defenders reached the well-known 51st arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

This facility is located in the Vladimir region, more than 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, which, of course, confirms that the strike was carried out by domestic weapons. Our Western partners have not handed over such long-range weapons to us so far. Most likely, we are talking about one of the modifications of our strike drones (Lyutyi, Beaver or something similar) or a “long Neptune”.

Earlier, I called the 51st Arsenal “well known” for a reason. The fact is that in the previous months, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have tried several times to reach this “fat” facility, but enemy air defense has always thwarted these noble efforts. This time, either our defenders used an atypical approach trajectory to the target or caught the enemy anti-aircraft gunners at an unexpected moment. It should be reminded that previous raids on Russian arsenals usually took place late at night - perhaps the Russians simply did not expect a daring attack in broad daylight.

The 51st GRU arsenal is one of the largest enemy “hubs” for storing various munitions. According to available information, it could hold up to 264,000 tons of ammunition, including artillery shells, missiles for multiple launch rocket systems, anti-aircraft systems, and tactical missile systems.

During the full-scale invasion, deliveries of railroad trains with ammunition from Belarus were recorded, which confirms that it was actively used to provide logistics for the occupation group of troops.

We remind you that a series of successful defeats of Russian storage bases occurred in September last year, after which there has been no such good news for a long time. We can only hope that we will see such spectacular footage from other storage bases in the near future.

The strike on the 51st GRU arsenal at this stage of the war is an excellent “asset” for Ukrainian diplomacy in the context of attempts to conclude a “deal” with Russia. To use Trump's terminology, we have another “card” to play at the negotiating table.

Author - Nickolay Yakovenko